Silent Hill 2, best story ever? For horror games, I'd agree, but overall? I'd vote for Planescape: Torment instead. Its dark, fantastic take on belief, regret, and accepting your past deeds struck a similar nerve for me, and the multiple dialogue and moral choices made it feel more like you were deciding these things yourself rather than watching someone else realize it.

Hmm, perhaps you & Lee could write a joint in-depth review of it, with both of you making different choices throughout the game?

Links to all the websites, etc., I talked about in this video:

X-Strike Studios:
http://www.x-strikestudios.com/silent.html

Silent Hill 2 Novelization by Ryan M. Usher: (old version)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2469215/1/Silent_Hill_2_Letter_From_Silent_Heaven

(new version)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4869186/1/Silent_Hill_2_Letter_From_Silent_Heaven_Redux

YoshioKun13's Silent Hill fan art:
http://yoshiokun13.deviantart.com
http://www.youtube.com/YoshioKun13

My own DeviantArt page:
http://razia.deviantart.com

SilentPyramid's Plot Analysis FAQ:
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/silent_hill_4_plot_a.txt

Book of Lost Memories, translated:
http://www.translatedmemories.com

I agree the game is the king of all games with an epic storyline, could anyone possibly understand it right to the end?

I guess not, it's too hard for most of the people and you need to study many symbols that are sometimes hidden between the lines.

planescape torment is also hard for the gamers today because they are being used to a easy story with shitty plots and nothing more then killing.

Planescape Torment is all about the question What can change the nature of man?

Silent hill 2 was so enjoyable not just because of Pyramid head but because the game's creepy atmosphere, it's music and storyline was so interesting and the characters were very interesting, especially James himself, now if you'll excuse me I'm off to translated memories.com

i really enjoy all of videos and was just wondering if you have any others besides what is posted on tgwtg and if so where i could see them at.

Thankies.

www.youtube.com/Cyborcat

Hey Dena, I still can't get over the fact that you managed to get the voice of James to narrate that Silent Hill 2 fanfic. Seriously, that's pretty bad ass!

Thanks. loved this review. Kept me up late at night. Some serious imagination, talent and passion went into the script for this game.
Oh and... do you really use pillows as weapons?

This is the second time I watched your Silent Hill 2 review (I watched them before at SA website) but this the first time I watched the 4th part because I was a hell busy back then and not able to finish watching it. Anyway, glad to finish it somehow...

I'm totally agree with you that SH2 was one of the best horror games (probably, the best in all SH titles). The game was so psychological that after playing it didn't went out in my mind and I kept digging infos about it.. and yeah, I know that Plot Analysis from Gamefaqs, I actually read them few years back. I also agree of the overuse of Pyramid Head.

I hope yo will also do another Silent Hill review. Are you planning to review SH3 and The Room? But anyway, your review is really nice

Keep up the good work along with Lee!

That part after 17 minutes was pretty disturbing, even for Silent Hill standards =P

Great job!

Agree, my favorite is Metal gear solid. Avatar is obvious . But its true silent hill as a series is one of the best, with 4 as the weakest and the others who aren't konami builded. But to sum it up, its best in her own series, but there are better games on my list(Bioshock has more completed story, characters and other features that are even more powerful then silent hill). It does`t make silent hill less worthy, and this is my own opinion, but still nice job on preview and try to show Bioshock from your perspective dena, looking forward to it on game den.

Oh, I just now got the reference about James' asking if they wanted to "pillow fight"... subtle, Dena.

Kudos for the in depth character study, Dena! I also found myself sucked into the world of Silent Hill 2. I couldn't actually get through the entire game because it creeped me out so damn much (on top of just sucking at survival horrors)! On the contrary, I used to read into all the lore and symbolism found through out. I just love how the story is so brilliantly written. The fact that not every detail is spelled out for you and you really have to pay attention to the story is just that much more rewarding in a gaming sense (achievement points be damned!).

So, I really hope you plan to do Silent Hill 3 as well. Can't say I know much about it.

By far my favorite ending is the Maria one. The cold, vaguely malevolent edge to James' voice when he says, "You need to do something about that cough" and the implication of what it means was just chilling. The voice acting for that was just great. It's such an innocent line, but the actor delivers it with such detached, subtle malice

Guy Cihi is a wonderful voice actor. It's a shame he was never in anything else.

Blue sky till forever, the green grass blows in the wind, dancing...

It would be a much better sight ... with you ... with me ...

Nice look at Silent Hill 2. Atmosphere-like, I agree that this one might be one of the greatest Horror-videogames ever.

One major thing has always irked me about James: His character. Yeah, you can empathize with him most of the times, but there are certain things that I've always found unlikeable about him. Especially the way he behaves towards Laura - she's a brat, okay, but he mostly behaves like a prick and is very patronizing towards her. And in some cutscenes, James just acts stupid (like with Laura in the hospital - he truly deserved that one!) Those occasions were rare, but they made me think "Why am I playing this guy again"?

I liked all the references you made, especially regarding the inspirations, but I was kind of missing an important one: The movie "Jacob's Ladder", starring Tim Robbins. Silent Hill 1 and 2 (especially the second one) draw a lot of inspiration from that movie, even going so far as to use similar imagery at some points. The atmosphere is similar, and both also deal with similar issues. If you liked the game, I'm sure you'll love that movie - I know I did!

PS: I also agree on Pyramid Head; he's on of the greates horror creatures ever created and is utilized to great effect in Silent Hill 2 - but he probably should have stayed in that game. His later appearances sort detract from the great impact he had when he first appeared.

Well, that's the thing--James isn't supposed to be perfect (obviously). He can be a bit of an ass sometimes. IMO, it just adds depth to his character.

Well said, ScreamingDoom - that line haunted me for days.
Who did the narration for the fanfiction? Hearing that was just as terrifying as the first time encountering the Red Pyramid Thing.

How the HELL did you get Guy Cihi to read that fanfic...as a Silent Hill fan...I MUST KNOW!!!! TT-TT

seriously...spill it...i wanna meet him...James is Awesome

The more I think about it. This game is a real work of art and not just a game. Some serious thought went into this one.

I like this game, the world of Silent Hill is so disturbing, unfriendly and grotesque, still it feels like a home where these "people" could live.

Paranoid alert:
Anyway, you mentioned things about Soul Reaver and Kain in both the Silent Hill vids and Thrill Kill vids, can i take it as a reference that you will make a Legacy of Kain vid series too?
I love those games.

Hopefully. At the very least, I may just do an LP on it or something, but more likely, it'll be a Game Den episode ... eventually.

I wanna finish covering the Silent Hill games first, so it might be a couple years off.

If you need any help for a Silent Hill 4 review, Dena, I'd be happy to assist - I have a lot to say about that one. ^_^

Oh, I don't doubt it =P

Oh, no, not what you think - I actually have lots of praise for its story and horror elements. XD

Its voice-acting and gameplay are a different matter, but most of my thoughts are on the story. ^^

As a story, Silent Hill 4 succeeds, I will say that. The stories are mostly what we play these games for, anyway, right? In fact, I would have preferred if Silent Hill 4 were a movie, instead.

Also, yes, it does have some great horror elements to it. Lots of nice atmosphere and music, as well.

Ah, that smiley face at the end of your first post looked ominous to me for some reason XD

I'd be curious to see what you thought, so I'm all for this. It is my least
favorite game in the series alongside Homecoming.

Meh, Silent Hill 4 hate isn't hard to come by--everyone has exactly the same complaints. Frankly, I'm a little tired of hearing them over and over.

For all its faults, I have to give the game credit for at least trying some new things, unlike 0rigins, where all they did was tell the story of the first game for the THIRD time (fourth, if you count the movie) without really adding anything interesting to it. 0rigins is easily the worst in the series, IMO--not an ounce of originality and if felt like its main purpose was to cash in on the movie.

Interesting take on Origins. I found Homecoming to be a bigger offender in this area, though. At least Origins had a fresh design for their Pyramid Head wannabe, whereas Homecoming rips its design straight from the movie, amongst other things.

Silent Hill 4 wasn't all bad, but its faults are pretty glaring. I realize that people get tired of hearing them, so I won't go into it, but they are there, nonetheless. It would be interesting to hear Linkara's take on the game simply because I love his work. His Wolverine: Adamantium Rage review was just as good as his comics reviews.

I generally can't argue with most of the complaints people have about SH4 (the reasonable ones, anyway)--I guess I just choose to focus on the good aspects of it.

Yeah, there are plenty of goods things to focus on, actually. My gaming life would probably be a little better if I didn't always get caught up in a game's flaws. Like I say, it's not my favorite of the series, but I still liked it.

I haven't came across a completely worthless enty into the series yet. Then again, I've never played the mobile games or Silent Hill Arcade.

And Linkara is indeed awesome--can't argue with that either ^.~

I absolutley love this game den series. It is quickly becoming my favourite show on this site!

Its never good thing to reuse elements from previous games unless its done well.

THIS IS THE BEST ENDING EVER

FAR BETTER THAN DOG ENDING

Ah yes, I remember the prison. I have to say the decent deeper and deeper into it was really disturbing.

The symbolic suicidal act James has to repeat, jumping down a seemingly bottomless hole, and the successively darken atmosphere just made me violently uneasy.

Since you mentioned Soul Reaver, any chance we'll get to hear you talk about the Legacy of Kain series? Hope you start with Blood Omen.

I think that alot that makes silent hill great aside from the story and the characters is the music. I got facinated by this in bioshock, when they sometimes change the music to match a stressed situation and make you hurry, you get really stressed out even though you don't have to. the same fenomenon (spelled correctly?) is present in silent hill, in my opinion the music from silent hill allmost as epic as the music from the castlevania games

One of the reasons I love games with set characters. Having choices can be great but too often we're left with voiceless heroes to imprint ourselves on. James, love him or hate him, is truly fleshed out and and part of what makes SH2 such an engaging game.
Personally I don't -like- James all that much though he is fascinating. He did something terrible and while it could be argued that going through the things he did in SH is a sort of redemption leading to the better ending I don't think it counts. James had to go through all that just to face up to what he had done and to stop trying to run away from it, redemption is something a character has to go after knowingly and willingly and is something he may or may not achieve after the events of the game depending on the ending you get.
Born from a Wish... I can't stop thinking about how unfair it all is for Maria when she's a self aware being and there's really no good end for her. It could be said that the Maria you play as in BfaW is lost during the hallway chase as the Maria's after that seem more and more... 'off'

Good stuff. I really enjoy Silent Hill series personally, though I was a late comer. The Room was the first I played and though I enjoyed it, I didnt know about the multiple endings and I got the bad one. Going through all of that surviving in game only to have your character and the neigbor die steamed my ass and I was turned off of the SH series for a while. Fortunately a friend clued me in that these games tend to have several different endings. This was a good review of SH2 and I can safely say I appreciate and understand the game much more now that I know more of the background. Keep up the good work.

I know the feeling. The first time I played SH2, I got the "In Water" ending. I think my reaction was along the lines of "WHAT?? Fuck this game! "

=P

"I can't do anything through these bars."

Oh, I can think of a few things, Maria.

Your art rocks, Dena, and thanks for all those links!

by far my favorite silent hill game is homecoming

Homecoming is a step in the right direction, storywise, but it's too combat oriented.

I'm glad you mentioned the book of lost memories. Most fans these days dont even know about it. And it usually debunks a lot of silly theories fans have made to try and make games like homecoming fit into the Silent HIll universe.

And its clearly obvioulys that double helix never even read it when creating that horrible peice of crap Homecoming.

I dont know if its mentioned on the site, but the book of lost memories was officially released with the JP version of Silent HIll 3. So yes, its official words by the origional Team Silent.

Yah, plus they added stuff that was on SH4's official site, so it even covers SH4 a little too.

lol... Lee... in full motion
I tried to play the game through a Cider I downloaded, but the controls were annoying (becaus im not used to not use the mouse), and James was all black. Soo sad

Pyramid Head is painfully overrated.

I swear that I'm the only person on earth that thinks he looks "goofy". He only scared me from a gameplay standpoint ("He takes forever to kill, and can kill me in one hit! I don't want to have to load from my last save again!" )

I understand the symbolism of the character, but everyone knows the only reason he's appeared in every U.S. made Silent Hill is because people think he's "badass". (Downvotes incoming in 5... 4... 3...)

I loved SH2, but from a horror standpoint, SH1 scared me MUCH much more. I didn't even want to play levels of that game out of sheer terror. Especially if I was alone... and with the sound on.

All in all, I LOVE this retrospective, and it really helps bring out the many facets of this story. I'm also very impressed by the sheer amount of high quality fan-related stuff you've highlighted as well.

I agree, actually. Really, I don't find SH2 all THAT scary--it's more dark and depressing.

It was the original game that really got to me and gave me nightmares.

Oddly enough (or maybe not in my case) I've never had a Silent Hill nightmare. I've had dreams about actually trying to go there.
But room 208, where James sees himself dead by the TV, freaks me out cause I swear I seen that room in a dream before SH2 came out.

Loved the reviews, it's just that I have no money for silent hill 2 :C